Our bespoke conference and training event for early career researchers gave participants the opportunity to join practical training workshops and present their work in our research showcase sessions.
Are you an early career researcher using longitudinal population study data in your work?
This September, CLOSER will run a one-day conference and training event dedicated to you.
Join us on Wednesday 18 September for our first-ever Early Career Researcher Conference and Training Event, Bridging Research and Policy: Unleashing the potential of longitudinal research for societal impact.
This bespoke event will provide a range of practical training workshops to allow you to develop the knowledge and practical skills needed to navigate life as an early career researcher.
Workshops will focus on creating infographics, engaging with policymakers, writing funding proposals, and understanding metadata and data management. Please details about the individual sessions can be found below.
The event will also celebrate the work of early career researchers with afternoon sessions showcasing research from the next generation of longitudinal researchers that has the potential to inform and shape public policy.
Parallel sessions will focus on research themes relevant to policy areas within the social sciences and biomedical sciences, including child development, mental health, trauma and adversity, health inequalities, socioeconomic inequalities, and the labour market.
Delegates will have plenty of time throughout the day to network with fellow early career researchers, as well as funders, policy experts and longitudinal population study colleagues.
Please note this event is in person only and will be free to attend.
Conference programme
The day will run from 09:30 – 17:00 BST.
The morning session will include a keynote talk from Prof Grant Hill-Cawthorne and training workshops while the afternoon will involve two sets of research showcase parallel sessions.
Training workshop descriptions
Infotopia: How to create impactful infographics
Workshop lead: Laura Evans (Nifty Fox)
Do you have important research findings to share but you’re not sure how to distil them into messages that make policy makers, funders or businesses sit up and listen? Are you struggling to present your message in a persuasive, visually engaging way that will inspire action?
This 2-hour training from Nifty Fox will help you define, design and deliver engaging visual stories that drive your audiences to action every single time. You’ll learn the three Ps of storytelling – Planning, Presentation and Performance – to help make you a better communicator equipped with the frameworks and tools needed to ensure your visual stories never fail to resonate with your audience.
Mobilising your research in the policy landscape
Workshop lead: Rob Davies (CLOSER)
What influences policymakers? How can research help to inform and shape public policy? Which are the most effective ways to engage with policymakers?
The first session will introduce you to the world of policymaking and equip you with the knowledge and confidence to mobilise your research in the policy landscape. The second half is a more interactive session where you will learn how to construct an impactful policy briefing note to help effectively mobilise your research to policy actors.
How to write a successful funding application
Workshop lead: Prof Jennifer Symonds (CLOSER)
How can you turn a good idea into a highly fundable research project? How can you respond to the vision and needs of the funder to maximise your chances of success? Do you know how to consider social value to help you write successful and ethical research proposals? What methods can you use to enhance the creative process during your grant writing period?
In this workshop, Prof Jennifer Symonds will share her top tips for writing successful research proposals. Drawing on her experience of winning £32 million in research funding from national and international agencies, Prof. Symonds will work with you to explore key techniques and approaches for you to use in your next funding application.
Maximise your research potential: a beginner’s guide to metadata
Workshop lead: Jon Johnson (CLOSER)
FAIR data is a focus for all funders, whether in the UK, Europe or further afield. For instance, “UKRI aims to achieve open research data that is ‘findable’, accessible, interoperable and re-useable.”
Whilst creating FAIR meta(data) is primarily the responsibility of archives, journals and repositories, researchers need to be aware of and be prepared to provide the right information for them.
The session will equip you to understand the core principles of data and metadata, and how metadata not only benefits access to your data, but helps you to think about how you use and discover research data
About our keynote speaker
Professor Grant Hill-Cawthorne is the Managing Director of Research and Information and Librarian of the House of Commons.
After completing medicine and medical training at the University of Cambridge he went to Saudi Arabia to set up a laboratory specialising in pathogen genomics, where he completed his PhD on the use of genomics for public health microbiology. In 2011–2012 he was an NHS Medical Director’s Clinical Fellow and the Clinical Adviser to the Deputy Chief Executive of NICE. From 2013–2018, Grant was the Senior Lecturer in Communicable Diseases Epidemiology at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney. In May 2018, Grant moved back to the UK as Head of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, POST, the science advice unit within the UK Parliament that bridges research and policy. In 2021, he took over as Director of Research, leading the eight teams of library researchers that provide research and analysis on all areas of public policy to support the House of Commons.
In September 2022, Grant became the 16th Librarian of the House of Commons, joining the Commons Executive Board and having delegated responsibility for the House of Commons Library and POST. Grant continues as an honorary Professor of Global Health at the University of Sydney.
Who should attend?
CLOSER welcomes early career researchers who are current postgraduate research students, within 8 years of the award of their PhD.
Please note that this is an in-person only event.
Registration
The conference is free to attend but all delegates must register online via the conference Eventbrite page.
Registration will close on Wednesday 11 September 2024.
Venue information
The event will take place in Woburn House (20-24 Tavistock Square, London, WC1H 9HQ).
Getting to Woburn House:
- 5 minutes walk from Euston Station
- 8 minutes walk from St Pancras International and Eurostar terminals
- 10 minutes walk from Kings Cross Station
- 5 minutes walk from Russell Square and Euston Square Underground
- A number of buses stop on Tavistock Square including the 59, 68, 168 and 91.
Plan your journey via the Transport for London website.
Call for abstracts
We ran a call for abstracts for inclusion in the research showcase sessions at the event. The call was open from March-April 2024.
We welcomed submissions relevant to policy areas within the social sciences and biomedical sciences, including education, employment, healthcare, parenting and families, public health, or any other relevant domain. The main requirement was that the research findings would have value for informing policy decisions and addressing societal challenges.
We encouraged abstracts that inform or directly respond to UK governmental bodies Areas of Research Interest, UK Parliament Select Committees Areas of Research Interest, and Senedd Cymru/Welsh Parliament Areas of Research Interest.
Contact
If you have any questions, or require further information, please get in touch with CLOSER Digital Communications and Events Manager, Jennie Blows: j.blows@.ac.uk
*i.e., a current postgraduate research student, or within 8 years of the award of your PhD.